Angel Island

One or two of the group glanced cursorily backwards. A pair of

perfunctory "Noes!" greeted Billy's inquiry.

"Well, I'm daffy then," Billy decided. He went on with a sudden abnormal

volubility. "Queer thing about it is I've been seeing them the whole

morning. I've just got back to that Point where I realized there was

something wrong. I've always had a remarkably far sight." He rushed on

at the same speed; but now he had the air of one who is trying to

reconcile puzzling phenomena with natural laws. "And it seems as if -

but there are no birds large enough - wish it would stop, though.

Perhaps you get a different angle of vision down in these parts. Did any

of you ever hear of that Russian peasant who could see the four moons of

Jupiter without a glass? The astronomers tell about him."

Nobody answered his question. But it seemed suddenly to bring them back

to the normal.

"See here, boys," Frank Merrill said, an unexpected note of authority in

his voice, "we can't sit here all the morning like this. We ought to rig

up a signal, in case any ship -. Moreover, we've got to get together and

save as much as we can. We'll be hungry in a little while. We can't lie

down on that job too long."

Honey Smith jumped to his feet. "Well, Lord knows, I want to get busy. I

don't want to do any more thinking, thank you. How I ache! Every muscle

in my body is raising particular Hades at this moment."

The others pulled themselves up, groaned, stretched, eased protesting

muscles. Suddenly Honey Smith pounded Billy Fairfax on the shoulder,

"You're it, Billy," he said and ran down the beach. In another instant

they were all playing tag. This changed after five minutes to baseball

with a lemon for a ball and a chair-leg for a bat. A mood of wild

exhilaration caught them. The inevitable psychological reaction had set

in. Their morbid horror of Nature vanished in its vitalizing flood like

a cobweb in a flame. Never had sea or sky or earth seemed more lovely,

more lusciously, voluptuously lovely. The sparkle of the salt wind

tingled through their bodies like an electric current. The warmth in the

air lapped them like a hot bath. Joy-in-life flared up in them to such a

height that it kept them running and leaping meaninglessly. They shouted

wild phrases to each other. They burst into song. At times they yelled

scraps of verse.